What do you search for in the Gallery?

sometimes I download lots, but always end up re doing them. I have my game set to fill empty houses, but I also like to do this myself. I send a sim to an empty house and do download from gallery. then I go visit, these sims live in houses my poor sims cant afford. lol but I like to see my own expensive houses lived in, with a few things my sims can't yet afford, like a nice big telly. Then I get curious and go play the family I just downloaded.

Ahaha! Does this have to be lot specific? I mostly use the Gallery to download sims since I don't like doing their outfits, etc. I like to save them as NPC townies in my world and move them into homes I build. I like the not-so-perfect non-barbie look. Like, I like some character in my sims' faces -or outfits. (Big nose, prominent chin, droopy eyes -SOMETHING interesting) I don't want super-models! (At all!)
I usually want families of two to five, but it's really hard to find a non-barbied family. So, I often have to resort to downloading singles and making a family out of them. If anyone has any suggestions of a simmer who does stuff like this normally, I'm all ears! <3

I'm not a builder so all my lots are from the gallery. Residential and Community. I play only one main family so for residential I just look for homes that fit into the look of the town and don't worry if they're suitably sized or furnished for the families living there. For community lots I just look for the most popular. I have several builders I follow, Silrosse(Jenba), PeachesPlace, and Sashraf1, who did the most awesome Granite Falls makeovers.

I enjoy building my own lots, so no need to use it for that.
The only time I've used the gallery was to randomize sims that I thought were interesting and edited them to use in my game.
I gotta a couple of sims out of it that I really liked. I like making my own sims too, but sampling from the gallery can give you some unique DNA to create sims you probably wouldn't normally make.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f116/cireking213/The%20Sims%204/10-23-16_10-21-04nbspPM.png

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f116/cireking213/The%20Sims%204/10-23-16_10-20-44nbspPM.png

I do a lot of my own building, but I particularly look for starter homes built by others that look better than what the game has to offer, but without a lot of clutter. I went on a spree lately and downloaded a lot of homes by one certain builder for my new Seasons save. I download a lot of restaurants and bars because I can't ever seem to have enough.

One thing I'm searching for now that I haven't found yet is a community build for the big lot on Windenburg Island, maybe a park or something that fits in with the area. I love that lot but don't want to plop a big house on it.

"phantasmkiss;d-943454" wrote:
I've been reading the Things Builders Do that Annoy You thread and it got me thinking about something similar:

What do you search for in the Gallery? What kind of lots do you download the most?

Do you want starters that are prettier than the ones in-game? One that have enough space to stay in for generations? Are you looking for more variety for second homes? For legacies? Backdrops for machinima? Do you want a style or a theme that doesn't exist in the game?

I build a lot in the game but when I don't build something and go to the gallery...

I normally play vampires and aliens. Vampires a little more than aliens and hardly ever humans. Everything I look for has to be Vampire Friendly. I don't do legacies personally. I don't do household of more than 4 or 5 usually and I don't normally have kids, babies and toddlers in the game. I usually use MCCC to cheat in funds right away and start them off in an empty lot and from there move them to their second home or if I like the area enough start building or find something unique in the gallery. I try to keep a similar architecture style in the areas they are in which I'll download a home or bar or other types of builds. I'll also download something I know would take me at least 3 weeks to build a similar style build (Gothic, Frank Evert Lloyd Wright, Art Neeuvo, Industrial, Art Deco, postmodern, etc.).

I will look for specific house styles (e.g. craftsman, Queen Anne). Sometimes when I can't be bothered to create my own, I'll search for community lots.

I usually look depending on what I'm trying to play with theme wise.. so if I'm setting up a world based on a tv show, book or video game I look for the builds using that name or theme and then switch to hashtags. If I can't find something that way I look for the architectural style. I'm not really looking for replicas because whatever I play has to fit and be playable in the sims world.
Once I find something I check to see if it's been play-tested and if it hasn't I brace myself and often download anyway, especially if I'm not finding much through my search and I haven't already ruled it out for some other reason. For instance the stop stealing hashtags tend to bug me, not because I plan on stealing but it's just dramatic to me so I rarely download those... I will but only if I'm not finding much.
I look for playable venues (especially restaurants) that aren't huge or MOO crowded.. because I like to see and find my sims easily also the bigger and more elaborate and stuffed the build is the more likely my game is to lag. Also related to that I try to keep an eye on the price also if it's crazy expensive it's probably not going in my game.. again it seems to create lag if there is just too much going on.
I also often look it up by the type of skills or character I want to make. So I might look up garden home or underground scienc lair.. or any other words that come to mind to help me find the build I want.
Personally I think the gallery is glutted with general starters... I search by price and build style at this point when looking for one.

homes and sims

"LaBlue0314;c-16578329" wrote:
Mostly I look for homes that are remolded homes of the ones that are already in the game, but kept simple, and not a ton of clutter all over the place. I don't mind some, because it adds that lived in look. One thing that turns me off to a home is if it has way too many lights per room. I've seen some where, there were some where between 10 to 20 lights in a single room, and every room was like that.

Also I also try to find homes that don't require me to do a money cheat.

When I do a remodel (since I'm not a good builder), I use the Night setting for time of day -- that way I can see how well the light covers the room and if I need to place extras or use a light that might cost more but gives better coverage.

For me, it depends on the situation. I've been remaking a few of my worlds just for fun, so with Oasis Springs I have an Eichler/MidCentury Modern neighborhood, and I found some beautiful Tuscan-inspired builds so the rich area up by Arid Ridge is now my Tuscan neighborhood (plus a beautiful spa that fits the area).

I also look for venues, especially restaurants since I can't get the hang of them. I do have one I made which is a remodel of the Rattlesnake Juice Bar (added the kitchen to a basement and built a set of stairs). Still need to playtest it and my Old Salt House Ice Arena; might do that in my next game session. I'll change the menu as needed -- I found one really nice restaurant that I placed in San Myshuno where the gym was (I've got a gym where Rooftop Treble was because I didn't really need three karaoke bars) and made the menu all the City Living recipes to make it easier for my Sims to find them -- and the outfits for the staff -- I downloaded a restaurant I placed in Granite Falls where the campground is/was; I have the cooks and waitstaff in explorer type outfits, and the hosts in bear costumes. :D

I have no objection to freerealestate if I'm placing households just for background purposes that I don't plan to play actively, but my own Sims I'd rather they earn their way. I usually start out single Sims in apartments in San Myshuno (sometimes as teens) then work their way up the ladder of success.